Five illegal immigrants have made common cause and are living and working in an Italian city. Arun, Jack, Nikhil, Musa and Kuddus come from different countries around the world, but their deep friendship for each other makes the many adversities of life in their adopted country, and the pain of separation from loved ones in their homelands, bearable. Bepari's novel carries the stamp of authentic experience: the reader is vividly shown, at first hand, the often unbearable pain undergone by illegal immigrants and their families. In the central story of Kuddus, the young Bangladeshi, of his parents, and of the risky marriage which they arrange for him, Bepari has found a single narrative which concentrates, in a single group of vital and sympathetic characters, the tragic contradictions which can arise when traditional cultures collide with an apparently heartless modernity.